The PSNet Collection: All Content

The AHRQ PSNet Collection comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community. These resources come in a variety of formats, including literature, research, tools, and Web sites. Resources are identified using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database, various news and content aggregators, and the expertise of the AHRQ PSNet editorial and technical teams.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 109 Results

CUSP Implementation Training.

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Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

The comprehensive unit-based safety program (CUSP) approach emphasizes improving safety culture through a continuous process of reporting and learning from errors, improving teamwork, and engaging staff at all levels in safety efforts. Available on demand and live, this session covers how to utilize CUSP, including understanding and addressing challenges to implementation. The next virtual session will be held April 18-19, 2023.

Mechanical Prosthetic Valve Thrombosis with Thromboembolism.

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WebM&M Case November 16, 2022

A 61-year-old women with a mechanical aortic valve on chronic warfarin therapy was referred to the emergency department (ED) for urgent computed tomography (CT) imaging of the right leg to rule out an arterial clot. CT imaging revealed two arterial thromboses the right lower extremity and an echocardiogram revealed a thrombus near the prosthetic heart valve. The attending physician ordered discontinuation of warfarin and initiation of a heparin drip.

Survey results from pharmacists provide support to enhance the organizational response to codes.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. October 6, 2022;27(20):1-5.

Patient resuscitation is a complex, distinct, team activity that can be prone to error. Pharmacists involved in codes reported concerns including errors with high-alert medications and communication gaps. Improvement recommendations focused on preparation for, actions during and post code phrases which included standardizing the practice of including pharmacists in codes, simulation, and regular debriefing.

The University of Michigan Emergency Critical Care Center (EC3) Provides Timely Intensive Care to Critically Ill Patients in the Emergency Department

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Patient Safety Innovation April 7, 2022

An increasing volume of patients presenting for acute care can create a need for more ICU beds and intensivists and lead to longer wait times and boarding of critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED).¹ Data suggest that boarding of critically ill patients for more than 6 hours in the emergency department leads to poorer outcomes and increased mortality.^2,3 To address this issue, University of Michigan Health, part of Michigan Medicine, developed an ED-based ICU, the first of its kind, in its 1,000-bed adult hospital.

Pharmacist transition-of-care services improve patient satisfaction and decrease hospital readmissions.

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March KL, Peters MJ, Finch CK, et al. J Pharm Pract. 2022;35(1):86-93.

Transitions of care from inpatient to outpatient settings are vulnerable to medication errors. This study found that patients receiving pharmacist-led medication reconciliation and education prior to discharge reported higher patient satisfaction scores; lower readmission rates compared to standard care patients were also observed. Pharmacists potentially prevented 143 medication safety events during medication reconciliation.

Sources of medication omissions among hospitalized older adults with polypharmacy.

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Shah AS, Hollingsworth EK, Shotwell MS, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022;70:1180-1189.

Medication reconciliations, including conducting a best possible medication history (BPMH), may occur multiple times during a hospital stay, especially at admission and discharge. By conducting BPMH analysis of 372 hospitalized older adults taking at least 5 medications at admission, researchers found that nearly 90% had at least one discrepancy. Lower age, total prehospital medication count, and admission from a non-home setting were statistically associated with more discrepancies.

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Bourne RS, Jennings JK, Panagioti M, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:609-622.

Patients transferring from the intensive care unit (ICU) to the hospital ward may experience medication errors. This systematic review examined medication-related interventions on the impact of medication errors in ICU patients transferring to the hospital ward. Seventeen studies were included with five identified intervention components. Multi-component studies based on staff education and guidelines were effective at achieving almost four times more deprescribing on inappropriate medications by the time of discharge. Recommendations for improving transfers are included.

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Maternal Safety

September 13, 2021

Ensuring maternal safety is a patient safety priority. This library reflects a curated selection of PSNet content focused on improving maternal safety. Included resources explore strategies with the potential to improve maternal care delivery and outcomes, such as high reliability, collaborative initiatives, teamwork, and trigger tools.

Interprofessional and intraprofessional communication about older people's medications across transitions of care.

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Manias E, Bucknall T, Woodward-Kron R, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18:3925.

Interprofessional communication is critical to safe medication management during transitions of care. Researchers conducted this ethnographic study to explore inter- and intra-professional communications during older adults’ transitions of care. Communication was influenced by the transferring setting, receiving setting, and ‘real-time’ communication. Lack of, or poor, communication impacted medication safety; researchers recommend more proactive communication and involvement of the pharmacist.

Clinical characteristics and short-term outcomes of acute kidney injury missed diagnosis in older patients with severe COVID-19 in intensive care unit.

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Li Q, Hu P, Kang H, et al. J Nutr Health Aging. 2020;25:492-500.

Missed and delayed diagnosis are a known cause of preventable adverse events. In this cohort of 107 patients with severe or critical COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, 45% developed acute kidney injury (AKI). However, nearly half of those patients (46%) were not diagnosed during their stay in the hospital. Patients with undiagnosed AKI experienced greater hospital mortality than those without AKI or diagnosed AKI. Involvement of intensive care kidney specialists is recommended to increase diagnostic awareness.

Effect of a multifaceted clinical pharmacist intervention on medication safety after hospitalization in persons prescribed high-risk medications: a randomized clinical trial.

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Gurwitz JH, Kapoor A, Garber L, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181:610-618.

High-risk medications have the potential to cause serious patient harm if not administered correctly. In this randomized trial, a pharmacist-directed intervention (including in-home assessment by a clinical pharmacist, communication with the primary care team, and telephone follow-up) did not result in a lower rate of adverse drug events or medication errors involving high-risk drug classes during the posthospitalization period.

Complications associated with the anesthesia transport of pediatric patients: an analysis of the Wake Up Safe database.

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Haydar B, Baetzel A, Stewart M, et al. Anesth Analg. 2020;131:245-254.

Children undergoing intrahospital transport are at risk for adverse events. This study used perioperative adverse event data reported to a patient safety organization to identify pediatric anesthesia transport-associated adverse events. A small proportion (5%) of pediatric anesthesia adverse events were associated with transport, but the majority of events were deemed preventable and one-third resulted in patient harm. Cardiac arrest and respiratory events occurred most frequently and largely affected very young children (<6 month). A previous WebM&M discussed a perioperative respiratory event in a pediatric patient during intrahospital transport.

Intervention study for the reduction of medication errors in elderly trauma patients.

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Parro Martín M de los Á, Muñoz García M, Delgado Silveira E, et al. J Eval Clin Pract. 2021;27:160-166.

Researchers analyzed medication errors occurring in the trauma service of a single university hospital in Spain to inform the development and implementation of a set of measures to improve the safety of the pharmacotherapeutic process. The Multidisciplinary Hospital Safety Group proposed improvement measures that intend to involve pharmacists in medication reconciliation, increase the use of medication reconciliation in the emergency and trauma departments, and incorporate protocols and alerts into the electronic prescribing system.

Longitudinal medication reconciliation at hospital admission, discharge and post-discharge.

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Daliri S, Bouhnouf M, van de Meerendonk HWPC, et al. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2020;17:677-684.

This study explored the impact of longitudinal medication reconciliation performed at transitions (admission, discharge, five-days post-discharge). Medication changes implemented due to longitudinal reconciliation prevented harm in 82% of patients. Potentially serious errors were frequently identified at hospital discharge and commonly involved antithrombotic medications.

Implementation and sustainability of a medication reconciliation toolkit: a mixed methods evaluation.

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Stolldorf DP, Mixon AS, Auerbach AD, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2020;77:1135-1143.

This mixed-methods study assessed the barriers and facilitators to hospitals’ implementation of the MARQUIS toolkit, which supports hospitals in developing medication reconciliation programs. Leadership who responded to the survey/interview expressed limited institutional budgetary and hiring support, but hospitals were able to implement and sustain the toolkit by shifting staff responsibilities, adding pharmacy staff, and using a range of implementation strategies (e.g., educational tools for staff, EHR templates).

Prevalence and nature of medication errors and medication-related harm following discharge from hospital to community settings: a systematic review.

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Alqenae FA, Steinke DT, Keers RN. Drug Saf. 2020;43:517-537.

This systematic review of 54 studies found that over half of adult and pediatric patients experienced a medication error post-discharge, and that these errors regularly involved common drug classes such as antibiotics, antidiabetics, analgesics, and cardiovascular drugs. The authors suggest that future research examine the burden of post-discharge medication errors, particularly in pediatric populations.

Pharmacist-led program to improve transitions from acute care to skilled nursing facility care.

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Achilleos M, McEwen J, Hoesly M, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2020;77.

Pharmacists are critical to ensuring safe transitions between acute care and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). This retrospective study evaluated the frequency of missed doses of high-risk medications after hospital-to-SNF transfers and found that 60% of first doses of high-risk medications were given after the scheduled administration time. After implementation of a medication order process including pharmacist-led medication reconciliation, the average delay in medication administration decreased significantly.

Clinical and economic impact of medication reconciliation in cancer patients: a systematic review.

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Herledan C, Baudouin A, Larbre V, et al. Support Care Cancer. 2020;28:3557-3569.

This systematic review synthesizes the evidence from 14 studies on medication reconciliation in cancer patients. While the majority of studies did not include a contemporaneous comparison group, they did report that medication reconciliation led to medication error identification (most frequently drug omissions, additions or dosage errors) in up to 88-95% of patients.

Discharge Planning and Transitions of Care

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Patient Safety Primer March 25, 2020

Discharge planning is an essential part of transitions of care, during which patients are often at a higher risk for adverse events and harm. It is important for all healthcare providers to identify risk factors prior to transitioning patients and put plans in place as part of the discharge plan to mitigate harm. Effective discharge planning between the discharging and accepting healthcare teams can help reduce adverse events.

Soft factors, smooth transport? The role of safety climate and team processes in reducing adverse events during intrahospital transport in intensive care.

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Latzke M, Schiffinger M, Zellhofer D, et al. Health Care Manage Rev. 2020;45:32-40.

This study examined the impact of safety climate and team processes on patient safety events occurring during intrahospital transport. The authors analyzed 858 transfers occurring over a 4-week period and assessed safety climate and team processes using standardized scales. After controlling for transport-, staff-, and ICU-related variables, the authors found that safety climate, team processes and transport training were associated with adverse events during intrahospital transport.

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